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Torment vs Ail - What's the difference?

torment | ail |

As nouns the difference between torment and ail

is that torment is (obsolete) a catapult or other kind of war-engine while ail is .

As a verb torment

is to cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture ).

torment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A catapult or other kind of war-engine.
  • Torture, originally as inflicted by an instrument of torture.
  • Any extreme pain, anguish or misery, either physical or mental.
  • He was bitter from the torments of the divorce system.
  • * Bible, Matthew iv. 24
  • They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments .

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * tormentous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture. )
  • The child tormented the flies by pulling their wings off.
  • * 2013 , Phil McNulty, " Man City 4-1 Man Utd", BBC Sport , 22 September 2013:
  • Moyes, who never won a derby at Liverpool in 11 years as Everton manager, did not find the Etihad any more forgiving as City picked United apart in midfield, where Toure looked in a different class to United's £27.5m new boy Marouane Fellaini, and in defence as Aguero tormented Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

    Derived terms

    * tormentor

    ail

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (obsolete) Painful; troublesome.
  • Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause to suffer; to trouble, afflict. (Now chiefly in interrogative or indefinite constructions.)
  • Have some chicken soup. It's good for what ails you.
  • * Bible, Genesis xxi. 17
  • What aileth thee, Hagar?
  • * 2011 , "Connubial bliss in America", The Economist :
  • Not content with having in 1996 put a Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the statue book, Congress has now begun to hold hearings on a Respect for Marriage Act. Defended, respected: what could possibly ail marriage in America?
  • To be ill; to suffer; to be troubled.
  • * Richardson
  • When he ails ever so little he is so peevish.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An ailment; trouble; illness.
  • Etymology 3

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The awn of barley or other types of corn.
  • Anagrams

    * * ----